hello. welcome to the final "worldwide exchange" of the week. i'm ross westgate. >> and i'm kelly evans. these are your headlines from around the world. >> eu leaders are nearing a historical deal in brussels which could see the region's

spending reduced for the first time. chinese trade going gang bust ner january while inflationary pressures ease off thanks in part to the lunar new year effect. this company must not disappear. that's the french government. it says it may invest in peugeot. >> and the yen says the currency has weakened too much. welcome to the final program of the week. i'm pleased we've got to this day. >> we've had a lot of time together this week. i have. and that's not why i'm pleased we got to this day. >> yeah, yeah. >> strong numbers out of china. >> that's right. we saw a big improvement there. but i have to say frankly, most

people's attention whether it's here or on the other side of the pond is the snowstorm. it seems like winds, 50 miles per hour. blizzard conditions in the u.s. we know when there's a storm like that headed for the biggest media market frankly in the world, it's probably all you're going to hear about for a while. >> that doesn't mean there aren't other things, too the. >> that's true, in other parts of the world. >> china is ushering in the year of the snake. i'm not sure what that means, but we'll talk about it. should investors brace for a slippery return? i have to say, previous years of the snakes haven't been that great since the big historical events happen. >> maybe we should call it year of the strong. peugeot reveals massive write-downs as reports suggest the company may nationalize. we'll have details live tr paris at 10:10 cet. sxwt latest on the blizzard threatening to bring chaos to the east coast.

we'll have the latest from atlanta. >> and are investments as pretty as a picture or a still life? ross, there's been a couple of big auctions here lately and it's always a good gauge of how well people are doing, how hard assets, real prices are doing and i love to see where the demand is coming from. the west, emerging markets. >> and it's online. >> what do you mean online? >> david hotney, his list of collection was ipad up. it was basically digital up. >> well, you know, there was a series, he did them on his ipad. they were beautiful. it was like jose -- >> yeah. you can take it with you, i suppose, is the point. so eu leaders are nearing a deal on long-term spending.

julia is with us in brussels or she will be with us in a few moments' time. what is key about this is -- well, we'll wait for julia. it's being portrayed as a victory for david cameron. right. because cameron wanted to at least freeze the eu budget. what's interesting, though, if this does happen, what it suggests for britain's contribution, will it be going up? there are a lot of different ways in which this could play out. infrastructure, research and development, those kinds of things. >> while we wait for julia, let's bring in marshall alexandervich. marshall, thanks for joining us. how much does it matter what happens with the eu budget? for governments, it's easier for them to go back to the lecture and say you're dealing with austerity, don't worry, we've cut the budget. >> well, i think it's a political move more than

anything else. the sort of cuts we're talking about are purely symbolic. the eu budgets, 1% more, 1% less. i think what does matter is that they take home a victory from brussels saying we have austerity here. it gets them a few points in the uk prep. but beyond that, i'm not quite sure how much impact it will have on the european economy. >> okay. stay there. julia is ready, as well. julia, is this a victory for the british prime minister? >> well, it's interesting, isn't it? if we get an eu budget of 960 billion euros, then yes, it's a long-term cut. arguably, we can walk away and say we got what we asked for. the question is what happens with the eu contributions? do we still walk away with our rebates, too? we are starting to see information filtering through now. the italians on a growth income national basis, they're the highest contributors. they're probably happy with the

latest contribution. the dutch are set to lose a third of their rebate. so the question is, in this tit for tat world that we have here in brussels, what would appease them? they have been arguing for cuts to the administration. that is one of the suggests that we'll see, big cuts for that, too. 3,000 eu officials earned more than the dutch prime minister. so the question is, in this negotiating process, who comes out best? and, you know, all this right now is speculation. but i have to say, underlying all this speculation is an optimism right now that we're still here and we are actually going to get a deal. so we wait and see. guys, back to you. >> julia, just curious if you can talk to us a little bit about what you're seeing, the power broker behind the scenes. the price implications from the budget might not be all that great. but what does matter is the

relationship between, say, hollande and some of the southern states and the northern core that is pushing for more austerity. what can you tell us about this, especially in light of the fact these meetings started so late way through the night and are still carrying on right now? >> absolutely. it was delayed last night because there were bilateral meetings going on and actually they stopped around 1:30 this morning and the french, the uk and the germans went into a separate meeting. yes, it's important. but these countries are the biggest contributors. if we can't get a deal among these three, how on earth are we going to get all 27 to dwrae. it is who gets what and ultimately everybody wants to walk away from here flying their individual cup aes flag and say, yes, can he wam out with a deal. one of the big things from the polish prime minister is that perhaps the agriculture spending would be protected so in particular that's one of the key things i'm going to be looking

out for later today if we eventually come to an agreement, how these interactions play out. now back to you. >> great from julia there from brussels. we'll let her get back to the hallways, shd say. the euro is trading near two-week lows against the dollar after mario draghi said he'll be taking the exchange rate into effect for its currency decisions. the ecb will, quote, alter its risk assessment as far as price stability is concerned. marchell is still with us. draghi, did he succeed in talk up the eurozone while talking down the euro? >> i'm not sure he did. he has to frame his decision in terms of the inflation mandate. obviously, they have a new set of projections coming out in march. at that point, mr. draghi has to

put forward numbers which are credible and consistent with ecb policy. at the moment, they're forecasting inflation at 1.4%. if the euro continues to climb, at that point, they have to end up revising down the inflation expectations for the year. why are you not cutting the refi rate? why are you not thinking about a negative deposit rate? dragdy has a difficult balancing act. but he framed the discussion in terms of, you know, let's wait until next month. let's look at the new stock projections and to from there. he's putting off any serious decision until next month. >> fiscal policy is on the one side being agreed and brokered in brussels and monetary policy on the other side coming out of frankfurt is pretty clear still. all that matters are those three words in july. whatever it takes here. it's still a monetary policy driven world and it seems as

though it's frankly become more of a side show between what's happening with the leaders between these countries yesterday and today. >> yeah. i think the eu is not a huge event. it's an interesting story, but it's not something that's going to influence draghi. i think there is a disconnect between financial markets and the real economy and i think that's been pretty clear over the last six months. ever since draghi said those three words, financial markets with their sovereign spreads or whether it's equity markets, it's been one way risk on. the euro area economy remains in recession and there are not really any clear signs of an imminent improvement. draghi, when asked about whether do you expect your area to recover were he was vague about giving that answer. in previously months, he said you'll see a recovery in the second half of the year. when asked yesterday, he said you'll see it at some point.

i company give you a time. it was meant as a skroek, but draghi i sense is et going more pessimistic on the outlook for the economy. there's plenty of room for them to do so. they can cut the re-fi rate. >> marcello, thanks for joining us this morning. >> thank you. >> i just got some comments from fitch saying the spanish reform is mixed for the big utility, talking about essentially the reform of spanish regulation last week. what it's like to have a mixed impact on the bigger utilities. you'll have pretty poor industrial production, again, spain producing its 8el.5% loss in december less, sorry, in december than it did a year ago which is worse than the weak november data. so the fundamentals are still deteriorating in spain.

>> a slightly different story in china where trade data showed the mainland's economy rebounding. both exports and imports up 20% from a year earlier topping expectations and pushing the surplus to nearly $29 billion. china has released its economic data for the first two months in march to help to try and iron out nv any distortion. >> chinese lunar new year holiday, shoppers over here -- >> there's major celebrations over on the west end, i understand. i'll have to go and catch that. >> hoping there would be a lot of shoppers from china flying in. >> when people wonder why aren't sales weaker, it's because of the demand from china and other ininvestors. >> investors in european goods. >> china cpi he'sed off a seven-month high in december to a 2% gain on the year. prices are likely to pick up again in february because of

rising food costs around, yes, the lunar new year holiday. also, prices down 1.6% but they are set to rise again with warmer weather. we'll have more on what investors can expect from china in the coming year of the snake. >> also, china has been less vocal about the rise on the yen from than other countries. but beijing is taking action of its own to head off unwanted pressure to appreciate. find out more about china quietly joining the currency wars on cnbc.com. and in australia, a cocktail of slowing mining investments, government spending cuts and the high aussie dollar has been crimping the economy a bit. chi slower growth. they're leaving the door open for more rate cuts if they are needed. the french budget minister

has hinted at a possible stake in peugeot. it will write down assets by 4.1 billion euros. stephane joins us from paris with the very latest. i can tell you how this is going to go. the french are nationalizing something again. is this really the best move for this ailing car measure? >> this will be the last resort option. this is clear what the budget minister said this morning. he indicated that the government would buy a stage in peugeot citron when the carmaker would launch a capital hike. this could be an option since the carmaker announced later that it was going to write down the value of its on automotive and financial aspects in europe. it's going to take a charge of the last year. it's a massive amount. it's about twice the market value of peugeot citron. in a statement, peugeot saysite purely an accounting adjustment

which has nothing to do with its operations. the chairman will not impact the cash position, the solvency and the liquidity of the company and it doesn't change the guidance. peugeot citron still expected that level to be at the 3 billion euros at the end of the year. and the carmaker is confident that the announcement will not change its credit ratings with the main credit agencies. in a research known to the list of bnp paribas, the write-down is reflecting that peugeot citron is not expecting an improvement of the car sector in europe. basically, the analysts believe that peugeot has revised the forecast for the market industry not only for this year, but over to the next one. >> and ross makes the point, it's not just france where people have nationalized automakers in the last couple of years. ross. >> no. i think you will find the u.s. government might have been heavily involved in that process post financial crisis. so people in glass houses,

kelly. right. here we go. we're just over an hour and 15 minutes into trade. european equities. weighted to the upside, 8 to 2 advancers currently outpacing decliners to the session high. let's recap where asian markets have closed. the nikkei, down 1.8% and we've snapped the longest winning streak in 54 years. the nikkei snapping a 12-week winning streak. down today. the yen has been weaker, as well. maybe some feeling that the japanese government will have problems appointing a govern who will stimulate the economy the way they like. bombay is fairly flat. the hang seng and shanghai making some mild gains this morning. european stocks, meanwhile, the ftse down about 1% yesterday. currently up 0.6%. the ibex up 0.8%, as well.

the ftse sharp outperformer this year. the dax fairly flat. up 0.5%. dollar/yen, 92.82. aussie/dollar, still on this 1.03 mark. sterling/dollar, just above 1.57. so we've moved away from the 5 1/2 month lows. quick look at where we are pt wond market in italy. italy, 4.55. ten-year spapish yields, 5.38%. take a look at nymex. brent has been tracking around the 119 level. at the moment, 117.65. there is a moment when oil prices start acting like a bit of a break on the economy. the eu leaders, as we've

been saying, have been burning the midnight oil to make compromises on the budget. what will the eu look like in the future? find out what the president of the bundestag told me late last night. great, everybody made it. we all work remotely so this is a big deal, our first full team gathering! i wanted to call on a few people. ashley, ashley marshall... here. since we're often all on the move, ashley suggested we use fedex office to hold packages for us. great job. [ applause ] thank you. and on a protocol note, i'd like to talk to tim hill about his tendency to use all caps in emails. [ shouting ] oh i'm sorry guys. ah sometimes the caps lock gets stuck on my keyboard. hey do you wanna get a drink later? [ male announcer ] hold packages at any fedex office location.

the eu summit is ongoing in bristles. what will the eurozone look like in a decade or so? i sat down with the president of the bundestag and asked him how he sees it evolving in the years to come. >> we need more political integration in order to avoid turbulences due to the structure of both fields. i understand that nobody objects to the economic integration we have, but there is some reluctant to tell the political consequences. this is a serious point which we have to debate. i think it's unavoidable to debate in this context that even if you prefer an efficient single market, you have to

define the rules within this single market. let's talk a little about the about sovereign. . but this, there was the assumption that the eurozone bank was just that. post the crisis, we came to understand there is no such thing. are we ever going to get to a stage where we recreate shared liability for the banking system throughout the eurozone? >> the political question is whether countries like germany, other countries not being directly affected, but probably indirectly affected are better off if they insist on this legal construction or if they support without such an obligation. and this is a complicated process to some extent a

frustrating process. by the way, for both sides. it's neither an enthusiastic met for for germans nor for greeks. but it seems to be rather successful procedure. >> britain, of course, is now germany's biggest trade partner within the eu. so when you hear threats like, we need to have re-pat reezation, how does that make people feel? how does that make you feel in germany? >> we very much like to have britain being a member state of the european union, but this cannot mean that we would accept any circumstances in addition to keep the member states being a member of this union. and our understanding of the

european process of the european community is more than just creating a single market. it does make sense to open a serious debate on the status quo of the union and the future prosecute speculative. what this community should go on and under which the condition. it is now up to the british government to explain what this could and should mean in concrete terms. my expectation is that nearly nobody would refuse a serious debate, but i expect as though some other member states might also have proposals for readjust ing present structures or

agreements. >> he did spend quite a bit of time speaking to conservatives mps from all wings of the debate. and he was saying, you know, there are those who really would like to renegotiate and those who see the process of renegotiating leverage to get the threat of the referendum as a -- you mentioned to get more power back. >> and he would have been a hawkish group for it. >> we've met with all rings. >> this doesn't mean we would expect any circumstance. what's being set up here, frankly, it's looking at the negotiations happening right now in brussels. it's a test of david cameron's political power, his ability to push for changes. >> the message i got from him, as well, they clearly support cameron's plans to make the eu more competitive. a lot of what was in this speech

get a lot of support. and germany, you know, now acknowledges britain's trade relationship is very important. but the question is where the red lines are. >> and also we've seen -- what was it, the bruin london pack is deepening. so in some ways, it seems as though it's deepening. just a bit of news here following the discussion we had with stephane just a few minutes ago. the french finance ministry is now saying the state is not -- it's taking a stake in peugeot. it's not on the agenda. peugeot shares are down about 2% currently on the cac 40. it says an asset write-down doesn't mean it needs a capital boost, that the write-down doesn't affect its solvability or liquidity and that the probabilities pursue a recovery plan. all of this coming out of the french government is ironic in the first place. now you can see shares falling

almost 275%, ross. clearly there is some hope that there would be a benefit here or help from the government without necessarily nationalizing, but they say their priority is to strengthen the gm alliance. we'll keep an eye on gm shares and see if they want to move it along. >> so no stake at the moment, according to french government. meanwhile, the world's fastest main, usain bolt could be ready to end his uk competition boycott. under uk law, athletes competing in the country currently have to pay 50% tax, yes, on their appearance and up to 10% of their worldwide earnings following a legal victory. other sporting events, including the dhampon's league final and the olympics have also had amnesty written into their

contract. if you ever wonder why your favorite athlete may not be showing up to your favorite british competition, maybe now you have an answer. >> he raced here for the olympics and i don't think he's raced here in the previous three years. >> because look, it's not just a one off winnings related to that event, but all of a sudden your annual earnings are subject to this tax? >> it's an annual appearance fee. >> it's a pretty big incentive for athletes to say, you know what? not worth it. >> we're asking do you think it's fair for athletes to be given special tax breaks? is usain worth it? e-mail us, tweet us. >> is usain bolt worth it? >> do you want to go there? do you think it's -- do you think this event is worth it, by

the way, to try to do the anniversary of the olympics to remind people and keep the positive buzz going? >> yeah. it draw tess crowds in. yeah. >> still to come, as the year of the snake slithers into sight, as the republic tile sticking with tradition and flaunting chaos? yes. we'll bring you analysis from hong kong.

you're watching "worldwide exchange." bringing you business news tr around the globe. you're watching "worldwide exchange," these with your headlines. e you leaders are nearing a historic deal in brussels which could see the region's spending reduced for the first time. chinese trade goes gang busters in january thanks in part to the lunar new year effect. >> the french government says taking a stake in peugeot is not on the agenda after earlier saying the company must not disappear. this all following a $4 billion euro write-down. and the yen jumps more than 1% as the japanese p.m. says the currency has weakened too much. european stocks today are trying to firm up on the last trading

day of the week. the ftse 100 similar gains for the xetra dax, cac 40 and the ibex up around .6%. yields falling a little bit, 0.017 for italy. quick look at forex, and we'll watch the euro/dollar, but it's the yen that's in focus. euro/dollar up after losing 1% yesterday. the dollar/yen, though, giving smup ground. in other words, the yen is strength strengthening after the lower house was told the yen perhaps had weakened too much. the politics or not? we'll see. >> construction output dproeg more in the last three months of 2012 than fist though up 0.9% quarter on quarter.

quarter on quarter dropped. construction is a big drag on growth in previous years. >> it's the manufacturing figures after a better disease. boeing is trying to collect more data on its 787 dreamliner batteries. these test flights will be subject to more stringent rules. investigators have isolated the source of the laugh last month's battery fire to eight cells, but still hasn't found the root cause. let's take a look at boeing shares, adding 1.5% in frankfurt trade. in fact, in the last 0 days, they're up 1.7%, almost 2%.

airbus, meanwhile, has announced it's received 121 new orders for aircraft in january and delivered 35 planes. meanwhile, reports suggest amr and us airways will meet and finalize a deal this weekend. if the party meets the timetable, it's possible the merger could be announced as soon as tuesday. and with the earnings season well under way, the focus turns to japanese carmakers. fuchiko has the story for us. >> hi, ross. japanese carmakers both errored their earnings today. isuzu posted a profit of $693 million for december, up 38% on sales of trucks and buses in japan as well as in southeast asian countries drew provtsd into the green.

in the domestic market, truck sales were strong due to the post tsunami reconstruction demand. overseas, opening up a new factory in thailand helped the tloifr backlog. but isuzu haven't change the rule on their full year forecast. the carmaker isn't performing as well as expected in the chinese market and since they use home currency for about 9 the 0% of exports, they only get a limited benefit from the weakening yen. on the other happened, nissan's profits fell 5%, worse than expected, $582 million for the third quarter. sales increased in china as well as in europe, but sales incentive fees and r&b costs jumped up. nissan kept its full fiscal year forecast. the carmaker hopes the continuing drop in yen would help meet profit outlooks. back to you, ross. >> thanks so much for that. china has its january trade numbers on out of the ballpark with exports and imports growing

more than 20%. the numbers may be skewed by the lunar new year holiday. yes, and it's that time of the year to for the year of the dragon and let the year of the snake slither into action. follow up, millions across asia ring in their lunar new year. hundreds of millions of people travel to be team and friends. have economic concerns taken a bite out of their celebrations? >> during the chinese new year, generally we spend more and buy all the delicacies available in the year. >> on spending this year, not really. we still have the same gathering. we meet up with everybody, friends and family. >> translator: spending has been more or less the same. it's a chinese tradition.

eye it's about celebrating and following tradition. >> there's more for investors from year of the snake. hi, dicky. nice to see you. so what is the year of the snake mean? what does it characterize? >> just make look like a snake, like this. energet energetic, but maybe volatile. for the whole year, no matter if it's the hong kong stock market and the china stock market, asia stock market, actually, my viewpoint is quite bullish. the hong kong stock market and china stock market read relatively low. if you compare it to the s&p 500 index, especially. but the hong kong, the stock market is also the shanghai composite index has risen had 24% from the low, three-year low in december of last year.

so actually, it meets some pullback in the short-term. but no matter, the pmi data and also the export/import data from the chinese bureau released recently were better than expected. so nothing will pull back our stock market too much. and also, i think the hang seng index may find a very good support at 22,800 points. >> we like that very specific target there, dicky. just a question, you mentioned a pullback. some mentioned the year of the snake could be seeing major events. for example, 1987, there was a sell-off that year. i want to call it the year of the swan to some extent. we get these unexpected speculations that pop up. is that how you read it? is it possible to keep that in mind when it comes to investing this year?

>> right. we just simply can't rule out any possibility thatf we talk about the fundamentals like the hong kong stock market now is only trading at 11 times historical pe reported profits of the 2011. we're talking about the 20134 pe is only less than 11 times. so it gives a lot of room for the hong kong stock market to outperform the markets in the world. but i do really see that some signs such as those are index component starts like hsbc. i don't see any more momentum in the short-term. definitely, it needs some pullback, especially those international banks start in hong kong. but generally speaking, i think the chinese government and also the ssb will introduce new measurements and also new quarters for renminbi, qfii and

qdii which is the qualified domestic institutional investors. too, we talk about the policy this year. so this is definitely a good thing for both chinese and also the hong kong stock market. but after the recent home run, it will need some pull back and for the whole hang seng index, my full year target is 26,300, which means 1 times for pe for the hang seng index 50 component stocks. >> dicky, can we ask you about the nikkei, as well. >> sure. >> just because i'm curious there, we started to hear more investors talking about maybe a 20,000 level on the nikkei. if these policies pursued by the japanese government. now, today being maybe a step back in that direction. but just curious what your take is. >> well, for the japanese stock markets, we can see it clearly. when we we know goes down, the stock market goes up and vice

versa. so i think for those definitely today there is the japanese stock market pullback a little pit. but if you talk about the long run, i think the japanese yen will have some kind of like 5% down side to the u.s. dollar. so this is definitely a good thing for those japanese carmakers exporters for those earnings. so i think the japanese stock market may rebound from a very low level like this. so 12,000 may be yes or no, but this is definitely a target, an optimism target. >> we'll leave it there. dicky wong joining us. >> there's a lot of super suspicion in china. the numbers, all -- >> and markets will ultimately come down to sentiment, anyway. speaking of which, we're a day away from the celebrated lunar calendar in china.

this year, the country's new leaders are setting some new traditions. eunice filed this report from beijing. >> lunar new year is the most festive time of year in china. nearly everyone hops the train or plane bearing gifts. this holiday is the largest migration of humanity on the planet. hundreds of millions of chinese go home to celebrate. but this year is going to be different if you're a government official. this year, the snake, china's new leaders who officially take the helm in march are dealing wi with. it's calling on the communist party to scale back on excess. no more lavish bank we tells, just four courses and soup. some officials do seem to be tightening their belts.

yong ching chow runs the salt, running straf gent events for state events. government is placing less new orders. it really affects my business. sales of may tie, the traditional toasting event drinks, are down. still, it's hard to tell how much is a real attack on corruption. investigative bloggers uncovered an extortion ring that led to the ouster of more than 10 government officials. ju says the police called him in for questioning searching for information on his sources. the last two leaders promised to fight against corruption, but when we wanted to root it out,

we were always threatened and stopped. eunice yun, beijing. >> fascinating. the biggest movement of people each time this year. and it's amazing. you've seen the impact. there's a question on whether that's been affecting the risk on risk aspects for the new year. it's interesting the way it's shaping up. >> yeah. it's going to have that kind of impact, as well. just a couple comments from the eu. any banks withdrawing from the market index panels may be required to rejoin. >> i love this. what is basically happened is the bax have pull out because of regulation. but look, they're saying they're going to acquire them, you know, to join them, thoef be very clear about how this rate is calculated, who is going to handle it going forward. all of these unresolved issues

we've learned about during the crisis. by the way, david enrich has fabulous people today. well worth the read. >> it is well worth the read. meanwhile, be careful. well, only if you like horses or don't like horses. britain's horse meat saga continues. now findus frozen beef lasagna is found to have contained between 60% and 100% horse meat. the british regulators describe the situation as appalling and says it seems likely to have happened through deliberate fraud or other activity rather than through mistaken issues. scientists have been running tests to see if the meat contains the veterinary drug

bute. that could kaut cause an issue. >> a lot of people are saying, look, we've seen these series of scandals. how much of a problem is it that you're eating horse meat? that's not the issue. the issue is you need to know what you're buying. apparently they turned around and sold some of the horse meat products to japan where itself a delicacy. >> and is i the issue is it's mislabeled and if it's illegal meat -- you just have to know what you're eating. >> i know. >> right. anyway, apple, demanding the company return more money to shareholders. item telling cnbc yesterday, apple has a depression era mentality, hoarding its cash. einhorn sued over apple saying

the company preferred perpetual preferred shares. >> we came up with a solution where apple can maintain its cash and its strategic flexibility and its comfort money and its war chest and at the same time, shareholders can receive the value that is embedded within the balance sheet. and the way that this would happen would be if apple distributed -- not sold, but distributed to existing shareholders high yielding preferred stock. >> apple, which has $137 billion in cash has issued a statement saying it will vault einhorn's proposal and the board is in active discussions about returning additional cash to shareholders. as far as the stock is concerned, in frankfurt today, it's up 2%. >> that's better than the market. still around. we're going to take a quick break. >> i know the dollar had an going your way against the pound.

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a u.s. appeal escort has rejected a lawsuit against the swiss bank and called for a reimbursement of damages for ubs services that led the clients to evade u.s. taxes. carolin is in zurich in the warm today, carolin. what do we make of this? >> yes. well, if you think that this is a very twisted, unheard of story, i think you're probably not alone because the u.s. judge in this case called ate big travesty. he said it's odd for tax -- to seek recovery of damages. ross and kelly, let me give you the whole story. the lawsuit was filed by three former ubs clients in the u.s. they evaded taxes with the help of ubs. then they paid back their taxes plus a 20% fine when they took part in an irs amnesty a couple years ago. then they tried to recover some of those damages claiming that ubs failed to tell them that

they actually needed to disclose those ubs accounts. by failing to do that, obviously, they committed tax evasion. but, again, the appeals court has thrown out that lawsuit and saying the plaintiff's case is like children who sue their parents to recover tax penalties because their parents failed to raise them to be honest people. it's hard not to be cynical for this story because some of the litigation risk has been removed. back in 009, ubs paid a heavy fine where ubs handed over 4,450 client names. back over to you. >> carolin, thank you. monte paschi is saying it's handing over legal action to those who damage their -- this morning. >> meanwhile, a portrait of

picasso's mistress sold this week. so in a time when markets are sinking and debts are recessing, how is the art market still profiting? phillip, when you see a headline sale like that, does it mean anything about the broader market or not? in the top end of the market is a boom. you have world rich museums buying at the top end of the market. you're seeing a huge influx of money into the london/new york market. so i think we're going to see a ten-year boom in the art market. >> so, i mean, is it a bit like the british property market, crime, central london, and the rest of the country, i'm afraid, is on its back. >> it is absolutely the same. a little old lady with 10,000 pounds to put into art, don't touch it. at the very top in, we're buying the fund $1 million, $2 million

pictures. to give you an idea of what's going on in the market, if you bought a crystal world, which we did four or five years ago for 400,000, today it's selling at 1.2 to 1.6 million. >> who is driving this? >> well, qatar -- the total investable market is about $10 billion. bill gates could buy the whole market with a quarter of his wealth. qatar are buying about $2.5 billion of a $1 billion market. qatar on their own? on their own for you this mus m museum. you've got the chinese and then you've got the other mortals who are making a huge am of money out of their businesses and putting it into art. >> you said something interesting. where is the fringe, the edge of the investor art market? if there's only that side and a lot more demand, what is classified as investable are we

stretching that? where is it going? >> we're talking about 3,000 pictures a year that i would deem probably investable. we buy probably about a hundred of those. and tuck them away. and you're talking about artists from the 15th century to the 21st century. the hot era right now is contemporary and modern. i think next week you'll see some blockbuster prices pay for bacon, barclay's sort of artists. at the christie's sale, that particular picture that was bought for $7 million which was bought six years ago for $18 million. >> is this the season? >> this is the london season. it's a bit like old fashioned so school. this week has been the impressionist week. next week is another london show of contemporary art and the next big show is going to be may in

new york when a few more billion dollars will come up for sale and then it shifts on to october and then back into london. >> wow. chinese. >> the chinese are absolutely fascinated by this market. and we're seeing the growth of china -- if you look back ten years, china represent about five years of the buying in the art market. it's now 30%. it's overtaken the u.s. >> wow. >> thank you. >> phillip hoffman, the fine group, thank you so much for coming by. we'll bring you the results of that auction next week on wex. do you think it's fair athletes get special tax breaks? this is so usain bolt can compete in the uk. keep your comments coming. e-mail us, cnbc@cnbc.com.

welcome back to "worldwide exchange." more than 50 million people in the northeast united states are

in for a major storm. >> e you leaders could see the region's spending reduced for the first time. >> and chinese trade goes gang busters in january while inflationary pressures ease off. >> fresh government says taking a stake in peugeot is now not on the agenda saying something must not disappear which feels a $4 billion write-down from the troubled carmaker. >> you're watching "worldwide exchange," bringing you business news from around the globe. >> u.s. markets took a leg down yesterday. the dow jones industrial average which had been trying to hold on to 14,000 slipping below 13,900 and today looking to add a couple of points. you have to take fair value into account. 13,896 is the level there. similar story for the nasdaq and the s&p 500 which this morning is sitting at almost exactly the level we saw it sitting at

yesterday morning. the cnbc ftse 300 is stronger. the ye is stronger, the nikkei is better by 1%. the ftse 100 adding 0.2% altogether. european markets giving you a sense of what we're seeing over here. it's quieter today ahead of the european trade. up about 0.4% on the ftse 100. the xetra dax up. the cac 40 adding about 0.3%. the ibex trying to stay in the green, trying to stay above that 8,000 level this morning, ross. >> and while we are seen the end to the longest winning streak for 54 years. >> in the nikkei, of course. >> longest winning streak. 54 years. snapped a 12-week winning game for the nikkei. this week, it closed down on the day. let's show you where we stand. up 1.8% at the moment. some concerns maybe japan won't be able to point the governor is

going to be stringent in loosening monetary policy as they're suggesting. elsewhere, kospi and korea up 1%. weaker data, still potentially room for the rba and australia to cut rates. and shanghai and the hang seng, up 0.5%. hong kong market up just over 0.1% today. this after data showing chinese exports up 25% in january from a year earlier. it was forecast to be up 17% in a reuters poll and not all down to the fact we've got lunar new year holiday coming up. therefore, numbers have been brought forward. as far as bond markets are concerned, the yield in italy, 4.56%. spanish ten-year, 5.39%. slightly lower than we were at the beginning of the week. on the currency markets, euro/dollar yen today at 1.3370. we're currently trading at 1.3416. to recall/yen has come back, as

well. 92.58. so, again, just looking at the fact are we going to see the loosening of policy that we have priced in. and brent had been nearing 119 for crude. now we're at 117.59 at the moment. nymex, 95.95. that's where we stand ahead of the open. >> ross, thanks for that. december trade deficit figures are due out at 8:30 a.m. eastern. the gap is expected to narrow to about $45 billion. then, 10:00, december wholesale trade. the usda's crop report is out at 12:00 insurance. and we're get earnings from cboe, entergy, moody's and aol. eu leaders could see the first real term cut in the history of the region's budget. jewel yeah is in brussels for us

and joins us now. jewels, they had an all-night meeting and this has been portrayed as a potential victory for david cameron. is that how it's going to play out? >> if we end up with a real term cut in its budget, it's arguably a real term budget. i think he's going to have a tough time coming back to the uk and explaining that on monday if this is actually what we get. we're expecting the talks to resume in just under an hour's time and they're hoping to have a final proposal at that stage and things could move quite quickly. we live in hope. what we have heard earlier is that the rumors that italy are happy, so that would fit with this suggestion. but, you know, i know you were making the point earlier that this is a symbolic decision. we're talking about a sum of money that's ohm around 1% of the entire gdp of the eu. but i want to make the point that for some of the smaller members of the eu, this is vital money.

i'll give you a staff on this. european commission estimates that 97% of the public investment in hungary is funded by the eu. i kind of think that says it all. so certainly a lot of focus here on the cohesion funds and the investment funds and the hope is that they'll have at least been held steady or increased. for now, though, we're waiting for talk toes resume. on the bright sight, we're still here and they're still at it. and i guess on the down side, we're still here and they're still at it. >> that sums up the whole e you process for us over the last few years. as you're there and chatting to people, this meeting has been unusual in how late it got started, how long discussions went on through the night. for a meeting where markets have been bnt paying that much attention. what's really at stake in these talks? >> well, you know, it's something that is going to stand for the next seven years. so while it is, you know, a relatively small amount of money and then it does have vital

importance. as i mentioned, for some of the smaller members, this is crucial. i think the president of the european parliament coined it best. he said it's absolutely vital for some of these countries. so yes, on a political basis, some of the bigger countries, they don't want to look towards needing to have to pay more money at times of austerity. but at the same time, you know, these are vital funds and i don't think we can escape that. >> julia, i guess the concern, too, is that the funds that are most vital is research and development on infrastructure are the ones being cut. jules, thanks for following this for us. hopefully the won't be too much longer. maybe through the weekend? is that a place you want to spend the weekend? >> no. >> rents in the northwest may not want to spend the weekend here, either. blizzard conditions could dump two feet or more in some areas and there's the threat of coastal flooding. paul walsh joins us now from the weather channel in atlanta. paul, first of all, can we talk

about the snam of this storm? nemo? really? >> i thought that was the name of a boat. >> well, you know, we started naming storms this year. we're up to the "n" storm. it so happened we ended up with nemo. it's kind of cashy. >> and can you tell us about this blizzard which appears to be headed to blanket most of the northeastern u.s. >> absolutely. and it's a very impactful storm and more impactful than it might otherwise have been for a couple of reasons. number one, it's been predicted since probably monday and the coverage of it has been continuing to ramp up. it's targeting very, very big. metro areas, it's impacting probably 50 million people in the u.s. the message has been amplified by social media. and so the discussions around it, the hashtag nemo is taking off and all of that is having an impact on retail. so we're seeing that, of course, that surge of people rushing to the home centers and the grocery stores and i think we're seeing it, really, on steroids.

because of the fact that the message is out there so strongly and because it's the first storm of its kind in two years, so it's a big event and it will have an impact on retail, certainly. >> absolutely. and we're seeing the impact on flights. there's going to be an impact generally speaking on economic output in this region if it is a storm that takes several days and high winds. power outages as we know are one of the things that become the most problematic from that point of view. paul, just the context, you mentioned this is the storm we haven't seen in a couple of years. you guys are naming storms again. it's a tropical force storm and it seems -- is it just our perception that this is becoming more common, the big mega winter storm events or frankly, is this just that we're paying more attention to them, that it's more of a media event than it might have been in years past? >> i think it's a combination of both. i think the frequency of these kind of events is going up. the amount of damage caused by storms is going up and there's a

very sharp increase. that's a combination of the fact that the climate is changing. we are seeing more volatile weather conditions. you can't attribute any one storm to climate change, certainly, but we are seeing increased volatility. and populations are increasing. we have more people in the way of these big storms and more infrastructure. so the impact then becomes that much more powerful when you've got these large population centers that are in front of weather that is increasingly frankly increasingly volatile. >> right. paul walsh is joining us there from the weather champ. appreciate your time. he's down in atlanta. hopefully won't get the brunt of the impact. the last time i was at the stock exchange, they still had power outages from the last storm, super storm sandy, which i still can't say. here are the stocks to keep an eye on. generic, which makes generators, adding another 1.5% in trade yesterday. so if you wanted to invest on

this storm theme, this would have been a good way to play the last couple of months. toro makes snow blowers. take a look at shares there, up 1.3 the%. not a strong performer over the last couple of months. >> they make things like chainsaws and -- >> huskavarna, up 0.5%. >> a couple of stocks to adds to your weather portfolio. >> rachel lynn joins us now. welcome. >> good morning. >> natural gas down even though this storm is coming. what's going on? >> the u.s. is very oversupplied. production has been cut back for some time now. and, yes, demand for natural gas is going up.

it's called overall thanks to the shale gas revolution. it is still a market of overslight. that's why it's difficult to see price rally on an explanation. it's going to find the cut in the weather. >> what about oil to take nymex? for example, how does that typically respond in these kind of events? >> i think in the past you probably would have seen a sharp reaction. but because natural gas was so aback up distant, you would have priced out all the oil used in heating. you are seeing heating oil prices going up. it has found some support, but not that much. now oil is a transportation field. >> and we're set to talk about crude and transportation. i imagine that would take a hit because there are so few people that can hit the road. >> overall, we would probably see demand nebs down. construction activity picks up if there is any damage and evens

out in a couple of weeks. overall, it depends on the intensity of the storm. probably won't be a huge impact, but the short-term impact on demand will be negative. >> loos looking at brent, we have brent nudging up. where do you see a lot of people talking about the spread between west texas and brent. what do you see happening with those vedz? >> it's been so volatile this year, it narrowed and then it's widened out again. brent has been supported by a lot of factors at the moment. china is doing well. asia as a whole is doing period. european declines have started to stabilize. so i think that's been a surprise for the market. slots of supplies, the saudis have been pegging back on their supplies, all of that. so that supported brent. libya is a problem. iraq is a problem. but on wti, what happened was there was a lot of news about these new pipe likes coming out of curbing and sudden think there was a lot more infrastructure problems where the oil was going. and then people retreated on the position and that helps brent a

little bit, that people got out of long wti positions and therefore, you know, ti weakened. >> when shale oil becomes much more of a factor, how is that going to -- >> it is a factor already. u.s. production grew by a million barrels per day last year. and that is precisely why the problem on wti is what it is today. too much oil coming in and the infrastructure just isn't keeping up with it. it's very much an upstream battle and at the moment, upstream is winning. i say winning, but producers are the ones affected by oil prices. >> so the infrastructure is going to catch up, isn't it? >> it's been a while and, yes, it's a slow process. second half of the year should get better. next year, you will see ti come in. june, july this year, you should see w at this starting to narrow relative to brent. >> we'll leave it there. thanks very much for coming by this morning. i want to bring you this

story. if you look at the european stoxx 600 and wonder what's at the top of the charts, in fact, up about 6 of 0 pirs the last time i checked. and we'll bring up that feed to see exactly where we stand now. up 18%. b.wen, this is a london based company. news out of new jersey yesterday that govern chris christie would potentially open up the state to online gambling is sending these shares up 18%. >> an interesting story, that, kelly, because a lot of online game companies had to pull out of the u.s. because they're at risk avenue being -- because they weren't allowed to use basically the telecom network for gambling. it will be interesting to see how they get around that 37. meanwhile, the currency wars are back on. who is set to benefit? find out on our website, cnbc.com.

and with unemployment in the uk at a 16-year high, community food banks are stories, but most of the people that visit aren't homeless, but are struggling because of benefit and wage cuts. regional experts are calling the ohio italy. why is it the region to watch and why might it dictate the fate of the election? that is the region that has milan in it, just to you know. it's the northern part of the country. >> it's known as the ohio to some extent of italy for its importance in terms of the elections. still to come on the program, could the uk tax break bring the world's fastest man bolting back to britain this summer?

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you're watching "worldwide exchange" and these are your headlines. >> the u.s. brices for winter storm naeemo. china is looking at gang buster trade. >> linkedin fourth quarter profits up 61%, which brew past

forecasts. revenue jumped 81%. the professional social networking site says it has 200 million users. linkedin talent solution segment saw a 90% rise in shaels. the company showed an upbeat outlook for the year ahead. shares up 10% in after hours. up 9.8% in frankfurt. >> a success story following an ipo. are you on linkedin? not just yet. are you reluctant to give out that information? >> there is a name associated with me, but i never do anything with it. >> i'm sort of the same way. >> mcgraw-hill's credit ratings could set them down further due to the lawsuit filed this week by the government against its standard & poors unit. and they say the justice department in several states are weighing similar action against moody's. any such move will likely wait until the s&p suit makes its way

through court. authorities moved first against s&p because the paper trail is stronger than with moody's. taking a loot shares, mcgraw-hill down 1% this morning. moody's is up slightly. those comments trying to deflect criticism that it went after s&p because s&p downgraded the u.s. >> tit for tat. >> absolutely. usain bolt could be ready to end its british boycott. george osborne has granted this summer's london grand prix meeting a one off tax amnesty. >> under uk law, athletes competing in the country have to pay 50% tax on their appearance fees and 10% of their annual worldwide earnings. it follows a legal lawsuit against entree agassi in 2006. some of your favorite athletes don't make it to the british competitions.

>> we wondered, is it fair for athletes to give special tax breaks? john says it's okay as long as all athletes are giving the same. they haven't just given usain bolt. anybody competing in that event will be excluded. >> in the same way that the olympics are excluded and -- >> champion's league finals and major events get excluded. so anybody competing in that event. it's not just usain bolt. it's anybody in that event. >> how do you ultimately tax the major earnings of some of these athletes who usually try to use jurisdictions from around the world that prevent them from having to pay tax? at least usain is pushing the limits of the um body. what have bankers done for societies and humans? >> where they went on that was besides the appearance fee, they say, hang on a second, you've been responsesered. if you're only doing ten meets a year, right, and your sponsorship is x over -- and for what you do over those ten

meets, therefore, that's why we should have 10% of your sponsorship income. that's the way they look at it. >> and they might be rightly trying to go after some of these major earnings that athletes can usually docks taxation on, but at the same time if it means they aren't going to come to britain kind of that, it's kind of an issue. >> yeah. and it hurts everybody else. >> so what do you think about the story? please keep your comments coming. we would love to hear them. worldwide at cnbc.com and you know how to tweet us, @cnbcwex. still to come, will they or won't they? french sends mixed messages about a peugeot rescue.

all right. so slim losses for u.s. stocks yesterday. today, futures right now are up, implying a flat open for the s&p. implied open down 0.4 points, the nasdaq up 1 point, as well. so a pretty flat start. >> take a quick look at peugeot. those shares down more than 3%. recovering about 1% on this story. the french finance minister earlier rejected suggestions the government is mulling a stake in

peugeot saying it was not on the agenda. it would write down the value of its european assets by 4.1 billion euros. stephane has been following for us from paris with the latest. stephane, just before we talked to you the last time, we are still saying there may be discovery intervention. those comments came out. can you help us explain what the government here is or isn't planning to do? >> yeah. it's really hard to know, actually, what the french government is planning. the budget minister says that the government could buy a stake in peugeot citron. in any case, the carmaker would launch a capital hike. they explained it would be the last place or option to stave the carmaker. but a few minutes later, the finance minister denied the plan. equity investment is not on the agenda arguing that the assets write-down doesn't mean that peugeot will need a capital boost. it came, of course, after the carmaker announced a 4.1

billion -- in transport from last year. stay with us. we'll be right back. man these guys are slow. reminds me of our network before cdw virtualized it. how? cdw and hp networking implemented a virtual application network that reduces the time to deploy cloud applications from months to minutes. with fewer bottlenecks like this. finally. charles! client golf. aim for the lake. really? we all work remotely so this is a big deal, our first full team gathering! i wanted to call on a few people. ashley, ashley marshall... here. since we're often all on the move, ashley suggested we use fedex office to hold packages for us. great job. [ applause ] thank you. and on a protocol note, i'd like to talk to tim hill about his tendency to use all caps in emails. [ shouting ] oh i'm sorry guys. ah sometimes the caps lock gets stuck on my keyboard.

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welcome back to "worldwide exchange." >> bracing for the storm, more than 50 million people in the u.s. are in the path of a storm

in the northeast. >> brussels could see spending reduced for the fist time. >> chinese trade dropped sharply in january thanks to the effects of the lunar new year. >> plus, investor is say staying a stake in peugeot following a 4 billion write-down from the troubled french carmaker. you're watching "worldwide exchange," bringing you business news from around the globe. expect it to be more quiet because a lot of the asian markets will be closed into the weekend and into the early part

of the weekend next week for the china new year. the cnbc ftse global 300 is up about 0.2%. european markets for the most part have been in the green. it's a quiet session. not a ton of action unless you're the uk listed companies raising 15% after signs new jersey may legalize online gambling. that's helping the ftse add about 0.3% to 6250. otherwise, xetra dax up about 0.3%. the xetra dax is trying to climb 0.1%. the cac 40 up about 0.4%. the ibex adding about 0.3%. how do you make money in these markets? here is what some of our guests have been telling us all morning. >> i certainly don't like the -- much. we've seen this week showing employment was better, but actually it's the third

consecutive decline in full time. that's the first time that's happened since 2009. we have the lowest business conditions since 2009. >> it may take a leadership stance on managing their cash files and spruce a proifg dividend which could lead them to have a single figure multiple and a long-term dividend extremely attractive to income buyers. there comes a point where regardless of the deterioration in the margin, apple becomes an attractive almost bond-like stock. >> we like the u.s. and merging markets generally. we're pretty much neutral in europe. i think europe is basically ahead of itself. margins are starting to improve. ism is heading in the right direction.

>> nothing will pull back our stock market too much. and also, i think the hang seng index may find very good support at 1 22,800 points. >> and talking of china, it's ringing in the new year with solid trade data for january. both exports and imports grew to nearly $30 billion. some analysts warn the numbers could be skewed by the lunar new year holiday. china released its data in the first two months to try and iron out any distortions. >> chinese inflation flowed in january. prices, though, were likely to pick up again in february thanks to rising foot food costs, yes, around the lunar new year holiday. amid all that, the hsbc market released earlier this year providing evidence the rebound in china is firmly planted. china output grew at its fastest

pace in two years last month. joining us now for more, pablo goldberg at hsbc. pablo, welcome. so if you wouldn't mind, there's been a debate back and forth about china, but certainly seems as though the rebound camp is winning lately. just how well positioned is china for stronger growth this year? and what is that going to mean for your merging market index broadly? >> it's very well positioned. we're seeing pick up necessary investment. we're seeing a pick up in trade right now. what this implies for the rest of emerging market is crucial. china is at the center of a stage of this recovery in emerging markets and we have seen last august that it's taking not only the chinese numbers up, but also the rest of asia up with it. it is a slow process. but you're seeing in the momentum gained in the index and the future indicator of the index that is suggesting that business confidence is at its highest for the next 12 months,

as well. >> does this imply monetary fiscal stimulus, pablo, or is this already in the cards? >> this is already in the cards. if anything, we have seen the stimulus coming along in china, slowly by surely, and helping to increase some investment and the confidence in the rest of the states. last year, a lot of people were thinking china could go into what hand landing. we've never been in that camp. and the interesting thing is right now, there's nobody out there saying china might have a significant deceleration of the economy in 2013. >> that always makes me nervous from a consensus point of view. but i'm curious to what extend this is a luber new year effect when it's not just china, but trankly, a lot of the world seems to be doing better for these early couple of months. does the lunar new year have anything to do with that? >> definitely there's a lot of lunar new year fact in the trade

data. remember that last year you had these activities taking place in the month of january now it's going to be taking place in february. there's more working days in this january compared to last january. when you strip that out as much as you can and we always advice to look at january the february in a combo, in an average later on when the february data comes out. you see a little bit weaker numbers on the headlines. but still, actually, some interesting data. for example, very interesting increase in china's exports to non-g- countries. it's an important divergence of what china is selling to countries showing that the rest of the world is recovering at a faster pace than the big economies in the world. >> yeah. so, look, what does that mean, then, when you translate that into an investment opportunity, pablo? >> what it's telling you is you have to continue to be invested

in where the growth is coming out. if you look at our forecast for this year, we're looking at 3.2% growth for the world as a whole and 85% of that will be coming from emerging markets. almost half of it coming from china alone. so what we're saying in terms of our investment is that you have to continue to be overweight on the emerging market side of the story. >> you have it playing out through emerging markets rather than through other companies that have that exposure. >> plain emerging market does not does not necessarily we need to buy stocks in the emerging markets. >> pablo, good to see you. thanks for joining us early and we hope you get through the storm okay. >> speaking of the storm, 2600 flights canceled. more than two feet of snow could be headed for the northeast. it's a major nor east known as

nmo. what can you tell us about the size and severity of this storm? >> good morning, kelly. it is going to cover the entire new england area. 23 mm million people or more waking up this morning to blizzard warnings. and the worst of it could be here in boston. they expect to see two feet or more of snow before all of this is over. so as you might imagine, emergency operation teams are in full preparation mode right now, making sure the sanders are ready, making sure they have plenty of fuel so they can get out ahead of this storm and get out once it moves through and begin to dig out. that's going to be a difficult task, as well. as for residents, thousands are making a run on hardware stores, home improvement stores, making sure they have batteries, flashlights, rock salt, all the things they will need for the storm and in making sure they have water, bread and the necessities that could help sustain them through a potential power outage for several days.

high winds associated with this system, in some areas, hurricane strength wind blowing that snow. it will be a rough go for quite some time. in the boston area, schools and businesses are closed. they are urging anyone who doesn't have to be identity to stay in through the weekend. >> jay gray from boston we should add, as well. jay, hope that you aren't too affect by the storm. julia boorstin is tweeting a photo of some crazy lines that she's calling in at jfk. everyone is trying to get out of the city before the storm hits. but everything starting from now is basically canceled. >> it will be hard. if you are stuck, there's within thing you can do. >> which is? >> turn the tv on. >> and watch cnbcwex. >> get your food in -- >> and -- >> no, no, the entire channel is fine. you don't have to just watch "worldwide exchange."

there are worse things you could do. still to come on the show, apple says it's considering returning cash to shareholders after coming under pressure from david einhorn. more details when we come back. . this is for real this time. step seven point two one two. verify and lock. command is locked. five seconds. three, two, one. standing by for capture. the most innovative software on the planet... dragon is captured. is connecting today's leading companies to places beyond it. siemens. answers. [ male announcer ] ok, here's the way the system works.

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community food banks are soaring. most of the people that visit aren't homeless, but are struggling instead because of hardship or struggling spending cuts. read the full story at cnbc.com. selections in italy are coming up. all eyes are on lombardi. they're calling on why in the region to watch? why might it take the fate of the election? all answers are on our website. milan is the capital city. and the currency war is back on with japan and the yen being the main player. who else is set to benefit? cnbc.com has the answers. one of the more interesting stories we've seen in what otherwise has been a quiet end to the chinese lunar new year, a lot of traders may be waiting to get through that next week. but today, it was more than a 1% strengthening in the yen after the finance minister speak to go one of the lower houses of parliament seem to suggest more

than the expected or unexpected. now, the zap niece government, the ministry of finance official came out clarifying to dow jones. what he meant to say, he didn't mean to suggest that it was unexpected. they try to draw back some of the strengthening resulting in the yen and saw the nikkei lower by more than 1%, ending its 12-week win streak closing this week, we should add, on a down note. ross. >> meanwhile, headlines today, major disruptions expected in the u.s. as winter storm nemo heads towards the east coast. gang buster trade numbers for china and leaders in brussels are close to agreeing to the first cut in the history of eu budget agreements. apple is respond to go david

einhorn. he's suggesting the company return more money to shareholders, suggesting yesterday that apple hordes its cash. einhorn sued over his proxy proposal to have the company issue perpetual preferred shares. >> we came up with what we think is a solution where apple can maintain its cash and it's strategic flexibility and its comfort money and its war chest. at the same time, shareholders can receive the value that is embedded within the balance sheet. and the way that this would happen would be if apple distributed -- not sold, but distributed to existing shareholders high yielding preferred stock. >> yeah. so apple, which is $137 billion in cash issued a statement saying it will vault einhorn's proposal and the board is in active discussions about returning additional cash to shareholders.

a lot of its cash is overseas. >> absolutely. shares up almost 2.5% in frankfurt on the back of that. >> they did pay dividends, but that was only last year. >> relatively new to the dividend game. >> what are they going to do that? >> 137 billion in cash and it's just extraordinary. >> that makes a big hole in your pocket. sony shares got walloped today for more than 10%. the home electronics giant sticking to its profit forecast. the results out after yesterday's close. we did talk about it, but the company missed estimates despite benefiting from a weaker yen. they cut back their sales targets for tvs and cameras. >> tried to look this up earlier. it was nissan at the end said maintains current levels at 50 billion yen for operating profit. certainly seeing the impact there. the faa has cleared boeing for test flies of its grounded 787 dreamliner jet on potentially faulty batteries.

the test flights will be stringent to more rules and investigators have isolated the source of last month's battery fire to eight cells. still hasn't found the root caught, though. it will review how boeing's battery certification was approved. boeing shares nevertheless moving higher, up about 1% in frankfurt. they've added 1.3% after the past 30 days. >> amr's critters will meet monday to vote on the merger with us airways. each board could meet and vote on monday. it's possible the merger could be announced as soon as tuesday. so maybe not quite as much of a merger monday. there has been a notable increase in activity, although this one is more idocratic. >> and still to come, the s&p 500 on track to post their first weekly loss of the year. we'll be out of the pits in chicago to preview the trading day ahead.

the world's fastest main, usain bolt -- not ross westgate, sorry. close, though. could be ready -- >> faster at what? the fastest man? >> fast at thinking on your feet. he's the fastest on his feet. when he sends his uk competition boycott. george osborne has granted the summer's london grand prix athletics meeting a one off tax amnesty. under uk law, athletes competing in the country have to pay 50% tax on appearances and up to 10% of their worldwide earnings. this following a legal victory

against andre agassi back in 2006. jeff tweet necessary to say athletes should only get a tax break if they follow ancient greek olympic rules, competing in the nude. >> yes, that would probably do pretty well for tv ratings. >> is that proven? do we know that are to a fact, that they competed in the nude? i'm not sure athletes competing in the nude would be given -- too many moving parts. >> let's move on, so to speak. >> yeah. let's move on to the european equity markets. they are slightly higher today. up 1% across the board after slim losses yesterday. >> online gaming companies could benefit from a change in new jersey law. broadly speaking, there is an eu subject summit going on right now. >> yeah. could see the first real term cuts in the history of the

region's budget. but according to some commentators, significant cuts on cross border projects means officials are voting the union into irrelevant. what do they mean by that? how can you vote it into irrelevance? >> i think the real point here is this is effectively mounting. it is technically aus takety even if only by a smidgen. i wonder if the bigger, more conceptual question is the right thing to do right now. >> from a political point of view, it's very hard. when you're influencing austerity as a government or you're pretend to go implement austerity and then to go ahead to around your electorate and say by the way, we've given the increase on your budget, that's just not politically -- >> and david cameron appears to have gotten what he wanted in lowering the total budget spend, but the question is does he raise or lower the contribution to it, as well? >> it may be the weaker nations

that actually, you know, it may come out of their contributions in which case the countries that can afford it actually still put more in. >> right. let's talk about the agenda on the u.s. the eu budget summit is still not concluded, but we prodly see the shape of an agreement. meanwhile, it's going to keep an eye out on the december trades. gap is expected to narrow at about $45 billion. wholesale trade is up at 10:00. crop report is up at noon and look for earnings from cboe, entergy, moody expense a a will. ben lichtenstein is joining us non. in any case, ben, let's talk about the agenda today in the u.s. overnight would say was a quiet session. and the storms coming into the u.s., are you going to trade that not necessarily. i think that for the most part traders will continue to see

what they have been seeing. the t slow sustained grind to the upside, if you will. s&ps, stocks and futures products have been enjoying positive territory. s&p specifically, levels above 1500. while we have tested key levels of support, we rarely have to break inpy again, for the motor part, we have to get up above key resistance this week, as well. if you look at crude, if you look at gold, we just saw a nice move of the euro currency off that 1.37 level back to 1 is.34. there's comfort value associated with there. even amid this low energy type trade, we're seeing conviction to the upside. it's tough to be short sided position. >> you're not phased by the first weekly loss this year, ben? >> no, no.

you know, we have some key levels of support that are still intact right now. really, ross, the bewildering aspect of this company has been that there's such limited activity on the south side of the players. any down side of the activity has been met on the buy side of players. really, again, there's been limited energy to the down side, limited follow through and participation has been extremely limited, as well. again, as i mentioned, it's not like we're screaming higher. if you look at the broader based markets, we continue that pace head higher. they seem to have established comfort and value at those areas. right now, it seems like we're waiting for some sort of news, some sort of catalyst to break us out of this range. i think you have to give the benefit of the doubt to the bulls. >> wow. ben lichtenstein there from

tradersaudio.com out of chicago. >> thank you very much. >> ben, thanks very much. that does it for us this morning. >> yeah, it does. i was just thinking about the weather this chicago and often the weather in new york is so much worse. >> new york keeps getting hammered. we're supposed to get some snow potentially. >> yes. nothing like the folks in the northeast. we hope you have a safe weekend from kelly and i. get through it. "squawk box" is coming up next. >> see you back here on monday. ♪ [ engine turns over ] [ male announcer ] we created the luxury crossover and kept turning the page, writing the next chapter for the rx and lexus. this is the pursuit of perfection. we can afford to take an extra trip this year. first boston... then san francisco. hotwire checks the competitions' rates every day so they can guarantee their low prices. so our hotels were half price. ♪ h-o-t-w-i-r-e... ♪ hotwire.com